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Designer recycles PPE for Covid beds - 18th January 2021

Cheap, hygienic, and sustainable, the mattresses made by Indian fashion designer Lakshmi Menon are helping Covid sufferers.

With the pandemic tearing through the Indian state of Kerala, fashion designer Lakshmi Menon heard that every new Covid care centre aimed to have 50 beds. However, mattresses were in short supply. To make matters worse, every time a patient was discharged, the mattress had to be incinerated to protect future patients. “I thought, that’s a lot of mattresses and a lot of burning,” says Menon.

Putting her fashion skills to good use, Menon has pioneered a way of making mattresses out of plastic left over from PPE production. India has become the world's second largest manufacturer of PPE, and the process produces a mountain of waste. Menon collects these offcuts to produce soft, hygienic mattresses for just 300 rupees (£3). The plastic is braided into rope-like plaits which are then laid out in a zigzag with the ends tied together. Not only are Menon’s mattresses half the cost of standard ones, they’re also kinder for the environment.

Menon's idea of using waste scraps to produce mattresses came to her when she was driving to Kochi in Kerala and saw homeless children sleeping in the street. A few days later, she visited a friend’s fashion house piled high with waste fabric. “That’s when I thought I could use braiding to make mattresses for the homeless."

Apart from the Covid centres, Menon is also supplying mattresses to homeless shelters run by NGOs. She feels that "everyone deserves a good night's sleep".